(Interscope)
Last year, country icon Loretta Lynn raised eyebrows by opening select concerts for the The White Stripes. Jack White, whose name alone pushed the novelty song vehical The Electric Six to gold and the middling Von Bondies even higher, described Loretta Lynn as an idol and an inspiration. White decided to make Lynn into the next mainstream success to come from a niche genera. As producer, he had the chance. It doesn't work.
Ever since the Soggy Bottom Boys, even as far back as Johnny Cash, American roots bands have experienced an ol' timey renaissance. And Loretta Lynn has been playing traditional country music for more than 40 years. She's due for crossover fans and a mainstream audience.
Loretta Lynn has always played the poppy end of American roots music without sounding disingenuous. Album for album, she has produced some of the best received country music around. Having been a pillar of the country music community, a collaborator with legends like Patsy Cline, and a legend in the genre, there really isn't any way for Loretta Lynn to go aside from reinvention and repackaging.
Lynn opts for the latter, and it is for the detriment of the album. The Rick Rubin conceived Man Comes Around series promoted Johnny Cash on the strength of his sound applied to unironic covers. The movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou was the gimmic for its soundtrack. But neither exploited their artists-the essence of the sound was still there.
Loretta Lynn's is just a series of concessions. The songs she wrote in her classic style are the highlights of the album, but many of the tracks seem to suffer from a heavy-handed Jack White. The closer Lynn gets to White Stripes songs the more out of place the entire album feels. The junk blues of \Have Mercy"" sound forced and false, the tracks White wrote and co-wrote seem to be oblivious of Loretta Lynn's strengths and history. Jack White may have taken on this project under the hospices of working with an idol, but became an album featuring little of what made Lynn a household name.
will go down as the album where one of the great names of country resorts to name dropping, a failed experiment of two talented musicians exploiting each other to sell an album. Come on, Loretta. You're better than this.
-Joe Uchill
